This invention pertains generally to voice-based or speech-based interactive electronic commerce, and more particularly to systems, methods, and methods of doing business for providing automated interactive information from a business or organization to a consumer in need of goods and/or services. The invention pertains even more particularly to systems, methods, and methods of doing business for providing automated speech driven query and response with business or event self-promotion features relative to businesses and events over ordinary wired or wireless telephone systems, PC systems, Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), and other communication and information appliances and devices.
Locating business establishments, such as for example a restaurant satisfying the particular need, has hereto for generally required access to printed directory listings, or more recently access to the World Wide Web using a personal computer. The availability of such references is frequently quite limited at the time the consumer desires to avail themselves of particular goods or services. For example, an out-of-town visitor driving in their automobile and approaching San Francisco might decide to stop and have dinner in a fine Italian restaurant and more particularly might like to have dinner in a fine Italian restaurant located in the particular area of the city. That visitor would likely not have a printed directory in their automobile or mobile access to the internet to search for a restaurant satisfying their current need. Therefore, the visitor would likely either have to stop and asked for recommendations or drive around until a restaurant satisfying their needs had been located. This is clearly inefficient, and the visitor may not have the dining experienced a expected if the restaurant they happen to see well driving turns out to have poor quality food, poor service, or both.
An analogous dilemma arises for other goods and services, whether provided to the local residents or to a visitor. Frequently information is not available to a consumer when he or she needs such information, and with the proliferation of a fast mobile lifestyle, there exists and need to provide such consumer information with readily available information appliances, such as conventional telephones, site other phones, or other pocket or mobile devices that can provide connectivity to a service at minimum cost.
Frequently such device will have only sparse input/output capabilities. For example, a cellular telephone will typically have only a few display lines presenting text or symbolic data to a user, but has substantial audio input and audio output capability that can be used by the consumer.
Heretofore, speech-to-text conversion has generally been limited to word processing and or computer or control applications as the has required fairly substantial processing power and memory within a computer device. For example, speech to text conversion products made by Dragon Systems generally require an Intel Pentium II or III microprocessor running in excess of 450 MHz and 128 MB of memory. This technology is not available in conventional or mold will telephones at this time. Text-to-speech conversion has been known but has not been utilized to provide an interactive interface between consumers and consumer information from telephone systems.
Furthermore, even for systems which provided some degree of consumer information over the telephone, such systems have either not attempted to generate business revenues through their operation, or have been unsuccessful in generating significant revenue in this manner. In part the lack of revenue success has been due to a low level of business participation in such systems, the inability of a business to control or modify their message in response to short-term business needs or to sell promote their businesses, as well as the lack of a particular incentive for a consumer to par take all of the information offered by the service. In fact, there may frequently have been a cost associated access to conventional information and referral services by consumers, even if only by virtue of the directory assistance by local telephone service providers.
Some conventional systems and methods have been limited to playback of recorded audio or audio playback corresponding to the content of web pages; but such systems have not integrated internet or web-based interactions with voice or telephone based information provision.
Therefore, there remains a need for a method of doing business, an information and referral service providing easy access by businesses and consumers, as well as providing business self promotion and consumer feedback features that encourage use, generate revenues, and provide incentives for use by both businesses and consumers.
The invention provides a system, method, and business model for an information system and service having business self-promotion features. In one aspect, the inventive business model is directed to a business in which consumers call into a service using an ordinary telephone, PC, PDA, or other information appliance, and make requests in plain speech for information and positive referrals on goods and/or services, and the service provides responses to the request in plain speech in real-time over the same telephone, PC, PDA, or other information appliance. The business model may further include providing a facility for a business to communicate a self-promotion of the business to the requestor, as well as providing an audio promotional coupon (or other promotional item) to a requestor when the requestor completes a call to a business using the service.
In another aspect, the invention provides an operating model for a telephone-based audio-interfaced goods and services information and referral service having merchant self-promotion features, comprising: an information database provider storing merchant information; a merchant interface for inputting merchant information into the database and for retrieving and editing the information; and a consumer interface for inputting voice commands and data and for receiving merchant information and processed information from the database in response to the input voice commands and data. The operating method may provide that the consumer interface comprises a telephone handset, and/or that the consumer also inputs non-voice commands and data from a keypad on the telephone handset. The operating model may also provide that the telephone handset comprises a mobile telephone.
In another aspect, the invention provides a system comprising: a speech-to-text conversion engine converting speech-based input commands and data received from an external device over a communication link into text-based commands and data; a data base storing a plurality of data items; a database search engine searching the database for a particular data item in response to the text-based command and data; a text-to-speech conversion engine generating a speech-based representation of the particular data item identified in the database search; and a speech server for communicating the speech-based representation of the particular data item to the external device.
In another aspect the invention provides audio coupons that operate as incentives for consumers to use the inventive system. In still another aspect, the invention provides system and methods for submitting and retrieving ratings for goods and/or services.
The invention also provides methods, computer software, and computer software program products that interoperate with the inventive systems and methods.